The poems in Rebecca Weiner Tompkins's King of the Fireflies lead the reader on a journey through a world of landscapes: urban; rural; mythological; emotional; erotic; cultural; political; and spiritual, and the borders between them. The voice throughout is of a figure in those landscapes, struggling to navigate love, loss, and mortality while juxtaposing natural and human-made environments, . Her language is both visual and musical (as well as a writer, she is also a lifelong working musician), and the poems range from lyric to narrative, but always with a strong sense of location and a precision of detail, even when the speaker is conveying questions or doubt. These poems explore the edges and the depths of dark places--but possibility, anticipation, and even humor are present. The exploration leads forward, and the promise of renewal rings true.